A good Pompey crowd were treated to a somewhat indifferent footballing display with neither side creating that many chances. Neither goalkeeper had that much to do. We started brightly for about 15 minutes and then seemed to run out of ideas. I have yet to be impressed by Smith and Saturday’s performance didn’t help, unfortunately even the usually impressive Baker faded quickly and Roberts did little of merit.

The substitutions were made quite soon after the break and it was the first time I had seen Main – very energetic but ineffective. I was surprised to see Bennet come on but like Main he tried hard without success. We played our usual possession game and despite having so much of the ball couldn’t do much with it. At least last week we had an astonishing number of shots against Carlisle not so against Crewe.

Bekymret for forsvaret vårtMore worrying is our defence. Until he was injured, Jack Whatmough was one of our better performers, he was beginning to show signs of having regained his fitness and sharpness combining well with Burgess – at least they were solid. Barton didn’t do badly either and is good cover – I only hope that Whatmough’s injury isn’t career threatening as that would be a great shame for such a young talent. Whilst be have cover for our centrebacks, left back cover is more of a worry. Naismith “went missing” from much of the first half preferring to play forward (where he is far more capable) at the expense of his defencive duties. He made a couple of good tackles and a shocker for which he received a yellow card but his unsuitability for the role put even more pressure on the centre backs.

I suppose a clean sheet away is a good thing and that should be a positive but the crowd already expect and demand more. Crewe are not a “bad side” and had already won but were basically a team of young players. Morecambe will be a tough test on Tuesday having beaten local rivals and promotion hopefuls Blackpool at the weekend. I hope that we don’t start with Smith and if fit, Evans at least makes it to the bench as he may be able to offer something different. Play Up!